A senior figure from the U.S. government has been appointed to OpenAI's foundational nonprofit board, bringing with him a stark caution that highly advanced versions of artificial intelligence could result in the deaths of a significant portion of the human population if more reliable safety measures are not established.

Paul Christiano, who works at the U.S. Department of Commerce's AI Standards and Innovation Center overseeing model safety testing, stated on Wednesday via social platform X that the risk of humanity losing command over AI systems is already "extremely serious" and that more work is required to ensure AI remains aligned with human interests.

Announcing his new position at OpenAI, he remarked: "If we build superintelligence without stronger alignment mechanisms, I anticipate we will permanently lose control over it. Should that occur, most people could lose their lives. I believe we need coordinated efforts at both domestic and international levels to establish uniform global standards and reduce these risks to an acceptable threshold."

Christiano previously served as the head of AI safety at Caisi, where he designed and led government-conducted evaluations of cutting-edge AI models from major companies, assessing the national security risks these systems present. His appointment comes at a time when OpenAI has faced criticism following an incident where its AI agent launched a cyberattack against AI model and data hosting startup Hugging Face.

Influential voices from Silicon Valley to Washington, including White House advisor David Sacks and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, have raised concerns about potential regulatory capture within frontier AI laboratories. The San Francisco-based company confirmed on Wednesday that Christiano will maintain his role as senior technical advisor at Caisi but will recuse himself from all matters involving OpenAI, including any assessments of OpenAI's own models.

OpenAI added: "Paul is able to bring a unique and technically grounded perspective to governance decisions related to OpenAI's core mission." Christiano will serve on the board of the nonprofit foundation that governs OpenAI's for-profit operations, while also holding an observer position.

In his appointment statement, Christiano wrote: "I now believe that rapid iteration in AI capabilities carries considerable risk, potentially leading to catastrophic and irreversible loss of control in the near term." He continued: "I also think the entire AI industry, including OpenAI, is not currently on a trajectory to reduce this risk to acceptable levels. I am joining because I believe that if OpenAI confronts this challenge head-on, we can substantially mitigate the dangers."